What does this mean?

As on many websites, LizardWiki administrators occasionally block accounts and IP ranges that are deemed responsible for or related to problematic activity. You may be an innocent victim of collateral damage, whereby a block of some other activity has accidentally caused your account to be inaccessible. Alternatively, your account or IP may have been identified by an administrator as responsible for or related to misuse, or some other breach of policy.

If your account has been blocked by mistake, it will be reactivated very quickly, as soon as you let an administrator know of the problem. Otherwise, there is a rapid appeal process which obtains quick review by other independent administrators, and brief discussion of the matter. The box above gives the information you will need in either case, as provided by the blocking administrator.

What is a block?

A block is a measure used to protect LizardWiki from possible improper use, or modification in breach of editorial policies. Once blocks are over, they become history unless problems recur. Blocks can apply to a user account, an IP, or a range of IPs. A number of automated features identify unblocked usage which apparently should be blocked; this can be quickly rectified if incorrect.

Most common causes

Your IP matches that used by another blocked account. Ask for further information and/or request unblocking.

Your account or a connected IP has been used in a problematic way, or your username was unsuitable and you need to choose another. The reason should be in the box above.

You have just clicked a 'red link' - an article that does not yet exist - but you do not have access to start a new page when no article exists already. Ask someone else to create the page for you, or create an account yourself to do so.

You are using Google Web Accelerator or some other web accelerator, or an open proxy, or other similar software to access this site, which can interfere with some aspects of LizardWiki's vandalism-management process. Some schools, colleges, workplaces and ISPs can also cause this problem. Disable these and try again, or see below.

What do I do now?

If you have never edited LizardWiki before, or do not have an account, please see the "Unregistered?" section (below the "Additional information" header) for specific information.

If the reason given is "username", "user...", "contact an administrator for verification purposes", or something similar, then you have been blocked for choosing an inappropriate username. To request a change in username and be unblocked, please go on IRC.

If a specific reason is given or you wish to appeal, please see the following section.

Appealing

The current block will automatically expire $6. You have many routes to appeal the block or its duration. You can use IRC to request an unblock if you have not been specifically blocked from using this feature.

Blocked directly?

Alternatively, you may appeal the block by requesting that another administrator review the block. To do so, please go on IRC.

If you cannot contact $1 or cannot resolve the matter privately, then independent unblock review as described above will be your best solution.

Please note: While this block may be upsetting or unexpected, abuse of appeal processes, repeatedly using the IRC channel to reqeust unblock when denied, personal attacks, or impolite conduct, will often lead to you being banned on IRC and protection of your talk page.

IP blocked?

If you are not blocked directly, your IP address ($3) or range has been "hard blocked" due to abuse either by the previous person who was allocated or sharing your IP address.

Do not do this if you were blocked directly; instead, see the "Appealing" section above (under the "What do I do now?" header).

Additional information

Unregistered?

MediaWiki, the software that LizardWiki runs on, identifies users without an account through their IP address. However, some IPs are shared by many people and as a result, unregistered users are sometimes blocked for the misbehavior of another editor. Since administrators have no way to accurately tell the claims of an innocent user from those of an anonymous vandal, you are strongly encouraged to create an account. See Why create an account? for a full list of benefits that come with registration.

Some blocks will still allow logged in users to continue editing. If you are currently blocked from creating an account, try the following:

Try again after the block on your IP address expires.

Create an account from a different computer.

Ask a trusted friend on a different network to create an account for you. Be sure to change the password after logging in.

Here is some information you may find useful when requesting an unblock: